Eulogius of Cordoba

The hieromartyr Eulogius of Cordoba, (Spanish: Eulogio de Córdoba) was a monastic and priest of the Mozarabic Church of the ninth century who is numbered among the Martyrs of Cordoba who defended the Orthodox faith against the assimilation efforts of the Muslim rulers of Cordoba.

Life

Eulogius was probably born in the second decade of the ninth century into a noble (senatorian) family that had held land in Cordoba from the times of the Roman empire. Eulogius was one of eight siblings, five brothers and two sisters, who received excellent educations under the guardianship of their mother Elizabeth. Eulogius received his education at the Monastery of St. Zoilus, under the abbot and spiritual father, Speraindeo. After completing his education Eulogius continued to live with his family.

While studying under Speraindeo, Eulogius met Alvarus Paulus, a fellow student. The two friends developed volumes of correspondence filled with prose and verse. Alvarus eventually married but Eulogius entered into an ecclesiastical career, becoming ordained a priest by Bishop Reccafred of Cordoba. His ordination was followed by his appointment as head of the chief ecclesiastical school in Cordoba.

In 850, Eulogius was imprisoned during the persecutions raised against the Christian by the Muslim government. While in prison he wrote his "Exhortation to Martyrdom" that was addressed to the virgins Flora and Mary who were beheaded on November 24, 851. Eulogius was freed six days after their death. As Christians faced martyrdom over the following years, Fr. Eulogius encouraged them in their triumphs as he supported the distressed Christian believers.

When the archbishop of Toledo died in 858, Fr. Eulogius was elected his successor. However, his imprisonment for aiding an apostate from Islam prevented his consecration. Leocritia, a member of a noble Moorish family who had converted to Christianity, sought protection of Eulogius from her irate parents. After helping her hide among his friends they were discovered and condemned to death.Eulogius was beheaded on March 11, 859, and Leocritia, who would also be recognized as a saint, followed him on March 15, 859.

Writings

Fr. Eulogius' legacy were the treatises, letters, and martyrology that he composed that justified and defended the sacrifices of the Cordoba martyrs against the lukewarm Christians who opposed them. These were recorded in Documentum maryriale and the three volumes of his Memoriale sanctorum and Liber apologeticus martyrum, which later were printed in the Latin Patrology of Migne. It was his friend Alvarus who recorded the acts of the martyrs of Cordoba.